Deception
by BigMamaKat
Summary: (set during The Dark World) When Loki was injured saving Thor he saw his perfect opportunity to escape his brothers clutches. However, he was not planning on the severity of his injuries.. Or to be happened upon by an unexpected woman. Loki/OC
1. Chapter 1

Loki wasn't worried.. at first. He had been in battle before, been injured, been near death, and this was nothing new. He thought it was a perfect opportunity to have been injured so gravely of Thor. Playing the wound off into something a little more lethal would work perfectly to get Thor out of the way, as well as anyone else would come lurking around.

It wasn't until he was sure Thor and the human woman were well and truly gone and he attempted to reposition himself that he realized his true situation.

The sensation he had at first thought to be his extraordinary healing taking effect had in actuality been the complete opposite. He wasn't warm from the healing. In fact, he wasn't warm at all. He was numb from loss of blood.

Loki was truly dying.


	2. Chapter 2

This woman was shocked and petrified of everything that was happening around her. Her auburn curls knotted and frayed, her skin layered with dust, her clothes ragged looking. She had turned around to find herself on a completely different planet - literally. After what felt like a day, maybe two, things began to shift and shake. The once dull and lifeless planet suddenly echoed screams, the roar of an engine, and the sounds of a battle. She watched far at a distance as men in gleaming, decorative armour fought unknown creatures. She moved closer, dodging behind rock here and there attempting to find shelter or a weapon.

By the time she neared the scene of the destruction the dust was settling. A large man with blonde hair and a red cape knelt over another. She began to run towards them, desperate for any way home, for any sort of answer. The woman faltered as the figure on the ground appeared to say their final farewell and, with an embrace, the giant hurried of with another. She ran after them, following them into a cave oddly littered with Earthly shoes, bottles, and keys, yet the couple had vanished. Heaving a sigh she turned around and began to wander once more only to see the figure on the floor move and sputter.

"Hey.." She broke out into a run. "Hey! You're not dead!" Her celebration cut short as she reached the man, his pale skin a horrifying sickly white in contrast to his attire which still seemed to shimmer gold and green even through the grime of battle. The deep crimson blood pooled around him. "Wait. No no no, wait, stay with me! Please, don't, it's okay. I've got you." Bending down, ripping off her plain over shirt and shoving it between his chest and his armour, she applied pressure while desperately trying to undo his chest plate. Finally managing to undo the clasps she rushed it off the man and ripped away the material beneath, revealing his bloodied core. The wound was bad; a clean cut but very deep, and she couldn't tell if the blood was slowing or not. She took a deep breath.

"Sir, if you can hear me, I'm sorry but - " She wiped away as much blood as possible. "I have no choice."

She took off the broach she kept on her thigh and broke off the pin. Fashioning a needle and thread with some strands from her shirt, she opened the wound with her other hand and peered inside. A gasp escaped her as she saw that the damage done seemed to be slowly trying to repair itself. Though now she saw the bleeding had slowed to a near stop, it was evident that he had lost too much blood to finish healing the most life threatening of the injury. "If you can hear me.." She removed as much blood as possible before pinching the skin together, placing the makeshift needle at the bottom of the wound. "Brace yourself."

She held a heavy breath as she pierced the skin and began to stitch it up. The man let out a hiss and a faint strangled groan before tensing momentarily and falling limp. "Shit shit shit.." She hurried to finish and began to rummage in her pockets, discovering an empty plastic bag, thin tubing, and an empty pen. "Being an artist has never paid off so much before.." She mumbled to herself. Grabbing the mans abandoned dagger she cleaned off all the items as best she could before slicing a less sensitive part of her forearm open and catching the blood in the bag as it gushed. Having enough to get started the woman wrapped the cut to stop the bleeding. Connecting the bag to the tube and the tube to the pens pieces she used it to give the man blood, letting out a sigh of deep relief as, to her astonishment, it actually started working.

The woman sat there, holding up her patchy blood bag, trying to think of anything other than how quickly her arm will begin to protest this position. "Look, sir - I know you can't hear me." She cleared her throat and shifted. "I don't know what I'm doing but Im trying. All I do know is this isn't the least bit sanitary but as long as it works well enough to get you off of deaths doorstep, we can deal with any resulting infections later." She sighed and scoped out as far as she could in every direction.

"I'm from Earth, as weird as that is to be saying.. Especially to someone that actually looks human. I mean, with the exception of the obvious crazy healing bit. I don't know how long I've been here in terms of Earth time but I guess I've been here nearly two days of.. _here_ time. Once I can move you maybe I can keep wandering around to look for food or something.." Closing her eyes she drew a deep breath. "I mean, I'm breathing. Maybe it isn't the same oxygen as Earth but it must be something similar for me to be alive, right? So that means there has to be some kind of vegetation around here to produce it, which means there must be water. Right? It could be just over that ridge. Or it could be on the complete other side of this planet. Or underneath us.. I've been walking since I got here and I haven't seen a thing." Feeling a rumble and a gust of wind swipe passed her she turned to the sky and saw it growing dark. "Crap.."

Placing the blood bag on the mans chest she gently raised his body til his head rested on her shoulder and her arms were around his chest. Carefully she moved him over to the closest collection of rocks. It wasn't quite a cave as it could barely cover one adult laying down and had a wide opening but it would provide better coverage than nothing at all. She used the bloody over shirt to prop the mans head up and, taking off his cape, used it to cover him. Using her other arm she filled the bag once more and just as she placed herself between him and opening, getting herself back into position holding the bag, rain began to fall. The woman's first instinct was the lean her head back and catch the rain in her mouth, suddenly feeling the depth of her thirst, yet she halted once the rain hit her bare shoulders.

It was scalding hot.

She leaned forwards as far as she could under coverage yet she couldn't escape all of it. Even the splash back from the rain hitting the ground managed to burn her. Teeth clenched she focused on shielding the man as best as possible, making sure his cape covered every inch of him.

The rain began to fall harder, soaking her lower back and parts of her legs. Burning through her jeans she began to cry out attempting to breathe through the pain till it became nothing more than a dull memory, but the water kept falling and never gave the opportunity for the pain to cease.

Attempting to stay conscious of the blood bag still in her hand she punched the rock before her, careful not to move as an inch either direction and the mans face would be exposed to the boiling downpour. Yet suddenly, it ended just as quickly it had began. Giving herself the moment to breathe and recover she gingerly lay down beside the man suddenly feeling very light headed and weak.

Feeling exhaustion creeping up she tried to stay alert by changing hands holding the blood bag as frequently as possible, as well as making conversation.

"I take it you're not from around here either." She grumbled through heavy eyelids.

"Oh, my name is Katherine. And it's no problem, I can stay.. I can, um, keep up so long as - as um, the cookies don't.. don't.. go too high.." Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she tried desperately to keep her wits together and to stay awake.

She failed, falling asleep within moments.


	3. Chapter 3

Katherine bolted awake, wincing as her burnt skin felt as though it were tearing apart from the sudden movement. Taking a deep breath she caught up with her thoughts regaining the memory of where she was and what all had happened. Everything was pitch black, still and silent in the night as she searched for a clue as to what had woken her. She began to lay back down as a soft whimper came from beside her.

"Sir? Sir are you okay?" She reached out to touch him and felt he was shivering. She couldn't check the state of the blood bag in the darkness so she detached it and put it in the only place she deemed clean enough - her pocket - trying not to think about the blood possibly seeping into her clothing. Feeling for the edges of his cape and making sure he was completely covered she took the bundled shirt out from under his head and laid it over him in hopes it would add to the warmth. Moving under him slightly she cradled his head on her chest and rubbed his arms and chest trying to keep the warmth flowing through him.

When his whimpers subsided and his breathing evened out she let out a sigh of relief, though she didn't move or stop till the dawn broke. A tightness in her chest she didn't know she had started to dissolve as the light reached the man in her arms and she could watch the steady rise and fall of his chest. She could immediately see the difference in the man and knew that he would be alright.

"You're going to be fine. If we can ever find food or a way to get out of here.." She muttered, more to herself than to the man.

The sound of her voice seemed to rouse the man. He stirred and grumbled incoherently as he tried to sit up. Katherine placed a hand lightly on his chest to stop him from moving and let out a cry of pain. The man had grabbed her hand and, his nails cutting into her skin, twisted her hand backwards. She tried to pull away only to have excruciating pain shoot from her arm to the rest of her body. She suddenly bolted to the side slightly, just enough for the mans head to slide off her and crash painfully on the ground. His grip went slack immediately and he cradled his head with his hands, groaning in pain. Katherine took the opportunity to move out of his reach.

"Can't quite use your abdominals yet, can you. Even with how quickly you heal. It's surprisingly difficult to keep your head up without them, isn't it?" The man shot her a glare and she was caught by his eyes. Just who was this man that she had saved? She moved closer cautiously. "I'm not here to hurt you. If I wanted that I would have let you die."

"I would have rather died than owe my life to something as pathetic and beneath me as a human." Katherine drew back at his words, her eyes dropping in sadness.

"I am sorry." Sincerity in every word. Confusion flew through his features but she spoke before he could utter another nasty word. "I mean I'm sorry for whatever happened to you that brought out that hatred. But now you have to deal with the fact that the blood of this pathetic human is flowing through your veins and is the reason you're alive right now."

He suppressed his shock as his eyes quickly took in the sight of her poorly bandaged arms and the blood covering her clothing. His eyes softened as he collapsed back, a mournful sigh escaping his parched lips.

"Why did you save me? What is it you seek? I can assure you I hold no favour and no riches of the house of Odin." Grief hung on every word as he spoke through clenched teeth. Katherine swallowed back the swell of emotion his words forced from her.

"I don't know who you are or what house you're talking about. You needed help and I wasn't exactly busy.." A small smile played on her lips. "Everyone deserves to be saved. All life has value."

"I am Loki, betrayed son of Odin, betrayed son of Laufey. I am the trickster feared, the monster that all of Asgard loathes. I am the one that has slaughtered hundreds and destroyed cities across the realms. Does my life hold such value, still?"

"Loki.." Realization dawned on Katherine. "The one with the cape, the man I saw before, that was Thor wasn't it. I saw him on the news coverage about New York.." She saw a grimace cross Loki's features. "New York? That was you? Some of your hundreds killed and a city destroyed?" His dark sickly smirk answered for him and disgust began to rise within her, only to be tempered by the strength of conflicting emotions she saw in his eyes. In that moment she knew there was more to this man than hatred and travesty.

"My ancestors used to call you Gods." She said slowly, carefully and subtly keeping an eye on his reactions. "Thor, the mighty God of Lightning and Thunder. The very essence of strength, healing, fertility, protection.. Not to mention protection from Loki, the master of mischief and magic. They used to carve symbols all over their homes to keep you away and ask Thor for help defeating you." Loki sunk back, his eyes evasive, his jaw clenched. "But what I wonder.. what happened to make you this way?" His eyes snapped back to hers and he smirked bitterly.

"It is in my nature, human."

"I doubt it. There must have been a moment, probably several, where you should have been given affection but were greeted with discipline instead." She let herself visibly relax and drew closer to him. "Your life holds as much value as any other and regardless of the things you've done.. I'm glad I was here when you needed it."

An awkward silence fell between them as she struggled to pull her gaze away from his striking eyes, marvelling in them as they seemed to shimmer between varying shades of dazzling green.

"Enough, woman, I grow weary of this. I -" He attempted to rise again but was stopped once more by Katherine's hand on his chest. This time, however, he did not attack her but rather allowed her to guide him back down.

"At least let me check your wound." With a nod she took the covering off his chest and inspected the wound. His healing had sped up a great deal _Probably not as fast as it should be since he has a lot of human blood.. _She thought, slowly removing the flimsy thread she had used since it had healed sufficiently to keep closed on its own.

Once she was finished she sat back and inspected herself. Angry red welts rose along the back of her shoulders and the back of her legs from where the rain had made contact. Loki saw her injuries and sent a check through his own body, feeling for similar welts.

"My my, you're quite the compassionate little one aren't you. And what of that one, there?" He pointed to an open cut on her forehead surrounded by dry blood and dirt. A sudden thought hit him, so simple he cursed his momentarily slow mind. "How did you get here, human?"

"My name is Katherine." She snapped at him, biting her lip and gingerly touching her forehead, averting his piercing stare. "I don't know how I got here. My coworkers and I were on the roof of the store after closing.. I was the last one up there but I guess one of them hid or something. They smashed my head against the ledge and tried to grab at me but I kicked them. I guess I kicked a little too hard cause I went over the side of the building.. Instead of ending up dead on a sidewalk I ended up here. No clue. Have you -"

Katherine looked up to see his once vivid eyes were drooping as his energy began to quickly fade. She watched him as he fell asleep making sure he was out before lying down next to him. Staring up at the sky dread shot through her as she watched the sky darken with more storm clouds and a deep rumble could be heard rising in the distance. Quickly taking the position of cover from the previous night she braced herself as the boiling rain began to fall. She heard it pounding yet didn't feel a drop. Looking up she realized the rain was not falling on them. Astounded, she lay back down and looked at Loki, that mischievous God of magic, and smiled.


End file.
